Sending targeted campaigns will make your list more responsive. Your contacts will learn that messages from you are relevant and interesting so they'll be more likely to open them. This will create a positive feedback loop that will improve your deliverability, open rates, click-through rates, and may increase your conversion rate.
One method of sending targeted campaigns is to send to contacts who have viewed pages of your site that indicate they would also be interested in the campaign you are planning. For instance, if you are notifying your contacts of a new product, you could send the campaign to people who have viewed that category of products in the past. Or, if you notifying your contacts of a new blog post, you could send a campaign to the contacts who have viewed that category of blog posts in the past.
To do this, you'd create a segment of contacts who have viewed specific portions of your website.
How to create a segment based on page views
Make sure that you have Site Tracking set up.
1. Click “Contacts” in the left menu to go to the Contacts Overview page.
2. Click into the search field.
3. This will display a new option. Click “Advanced Search:”
The Segment Builder will appear at the top of the screen. The Segment Builder allows you to create conditions that define your search criteria.
4. To create a condition based on Site Tracking data, click the left field that says “(Select a condition...).” A category of options will display. Click “Site & Event Tracking Data.” This will display a list of the types of data you can use to create your conditions.
5. Click “Has visited” to create a condition of contacts that have viewed specific pages of your site. Note that you are able to define the condition based on partial matches and exact matches. You are also able to refer to the entire domain and specific URLs.
If you wanted to target categories of pages (also known as “directories”) you could use “URL (contains)” and then input the URL with the directory:
In the above example, a visit to any page of http://yourdomain.com/category/ will match the condition.
For example the following URLs will match this condition:
- http://yourdomain.com/category/product-a
- http://yourdomain.com/category/product-b
- http://yourdomain.com/category/products/on-sale/november
You can combine conditions with “And” and “Or” logic to identify very specific groups of contacts. “And” will combine conditions so that only contacts who match both conditions will display so it's a way to narrow your matches. “Or” will display contacts who match either condition so it's a way to broaden your matches.
6. The contacts that match the conditions you define here will appear below when you click “Search.”
7. When you have your conditions defined and you're sure you have identified the contacts you are looking for, click into the search field again. This will display two options:
8. Click “Save as Segment” and give your segment a name. Click “Ok” to save your segment.
The next time you go to send a campaign, your segment will appear in the list of available segments.